FENWICK ISLAND – With the summer season approaching, the Fenwick Island Town Council made several decisions during their legislative session last Friday, including awarding Steen’s Beach Service the beach rental franchise, granting Chesapeake Waste Industries the solid waste work, not receiving one municipal shuttle bid, approving metal beach signage and deciding against commercial operations at Cannon Street Park.
Beach Service Awarded
After re-bidding the beach equipment rental concession, Town Manager Merritt Burke announced again there was one bidder, Steen’s Beach Service, to provide the service for the Town Beach and State Line Beach. The bid amount is $3,212 and Burke recommended the council award the bid.
According to Burke, Steen’s Beach Service started in 1957 by brothers Marvin and Ron Steen of Bethany Beach. They began with two locations renting umbrellas, chairs and rafts.
“They have been managing multiple locations since then,” Burke said. “They are a family-owned business locally and do a great job.”
The council voted unanimously to approve Steen’s to provide beach equipment rentals in Fenwick for one year having the option to renew for a subsequent year.
In October, Burke explained this past summer the council approved two bids — Steen’s Beach Service for beach equipment rentals and Go Melvo for beach concessions. Both contracts were for one year with the option to renew for an additional year.
At the end of the summer season, Burke received correspondence from Go Melvo, who provided snowballs at the State Line Beach, and wanted to renew their contract for the 2014 summer season at the previous bid price of $11,500.
However, Steen’s declined the option to renew their contract at the approved bid price of $13,212. The company stated they are still interested in providing beach equipment rentals in Fenwick but they simply paid too much last season.
Although Burke had spoken to numerous interested beach rental concessions, Steen’s was the only bidder.
At that time, the council voted unanimously to accept Go Melvo, Inc. request to continue its contract to serve as the beach concession in 2014 at the State Line Beach, and re-bid the beach rental concession.
Solid Waste Under Contract
Chesapeake Waste Industries, LLC of Salisbury is under contract until April 30 to provide solid waste service to the Town of Fenwick Island. With the contract expiration approaching, the town went to rebid a solid waste collection service over the winter.
According to Burke, the town received five bids, and Chesapeake Waste Industries was the lowest bidder at $11.70 per unit and recommended the council award the bid to the current provider.
“This contract will run from May 1 to Aug. 31, 2015. It is a rather short contract being 16 months but it’s with your instruction to bundle recycling with solid waste next summer when the recycling contract comes to an end,” Burke said.
The council voted unanimously to approve Chesapeake Waste Industries for 16 months of solid waste collection in Fenwick.
A solid waste, recycling and yard waste calendar is available on the Town of Fenwick Island’s website at www.fenwickisland.org.
No Bids Received
For Municipal Shuttle
Mayor Audrey Serio announced there were no bids received to provide Fenwick a municipal shuttle service.
In January, the council voted unanimously to put out a Request for Proposal (RFP) for a non-fixed route shuttle service following a recommendation of the Parking Committee to help relieve parking and traffic issues.
The RFP stated, “the Town of Fenwick Island is seeking proposals from qualified Municipal Shuttle Service Operators to transport residents, non-residents and visitors within the designated shuttle service area. The shuttle service would commence Saturday, May 24, 2014 at 8 a.m. and end on Monday, Sept. 15, 2014 at 2 a.m.”
The shuttle service would have operated daily from 8 a.m. to 1 a.m., and would be staged out of the Town Hall parking lot. The operator routes would have included the Town of Fenwick Island and the unincorporated areas to Fenwick Ave. The routes would not have included Route 54, including the State of Maryland, but not limited to, the incorporated areas of Ocean City.
Metal Beach Signs Return
Public Works Supervisor Bryan Reed stated when he first started working for Fenwick Island in 2001 metal signage was installed on the beach.
The signage referred to read, “Please Respect Our Beach”, and continue to list the town’s rules and regulations for the beach, such as “Litter, vehicles, alcohol and glass containers are prohibited.”
Reed furthered a few years ago the council voted to return to wooden signs due to the natural look but with summer approaching he was starting to get mixed opinions of which signs to have on the beach this year.
“The wooden signs are already out there right now but to touch them up and for it to actually be seen it would take time to power wash them and paint them because the power washing is going to knock some of the color out … if you want to switch to the metal signs for the summer they are quite easy to clean up, and people at night can see them from a further distance away then the wooden signs,” he said.
Serio agreed the wooden signs darken due to moisture and become difficult to read.
“Probably the answer would be to have new signs made out of a different wooden material that would require a cleanup once a year,” Council Treasurer Gardner Bunting said.
The council voted 6-0 with Councilman Roy Williams opposed to replace the wooden beach signs with the metal versions for this summer.
Watersports Denied At
Cannon Street Park
Burke explained he has received two requests from local watersports vendors to launch kayaks, paddle boards and other similar types of watercrafts from the new Cannon Street Park, which has a kayak launch and projected to be complete and open this week.
Councilman William Weistling pointed out in the Town of Fenwick Island there are residential, commercial and park districts, and according to Town Code commercial activity would not be allowed in the park district.
“I am not necessarily against doing it but my concern is it is the first year we have had the park, and we don’t know what the parking issues are going to be, which I think we will have,” Serio said. “If we decide to do something like that, I think it has to be after the first year and we would have to sit down and really look at what rules and regulations we need.”
Councilwoman Diane Tingle made a motion to not allow commercial activity at Cannon Street Park, and the council voted 6-0 to approve with Smallwood abstained.
As for implementing certain rules and regulations for this season, the council was in consensus to imply the basics, such as certain hours of access will be from sunrise to sunset, no swimming, no diving and no docking.
“We need to get through the first summer. We don’t know what the problems will be and what we need to do to make it better,” Serio said.